Afterwards
by Eddie-Hawke
Summary: ME2 LoTS OneShot; Shepard travels to Liara, looking to question the future of their relationship after she decides to become the new Broker.


"Can I talk to you?" Shepard asked, the hue of the multiple screens Liara had glued herself to reflecting on her love's skin, making her seem pale; her eyes wide with an untapped amount of knowledge.

"I'm pretty busy here..." Came the timid response from the Asari. She didn't want to admit that, her voice wavering in subtle doubt. Shepard, not one to be refused when the matter appeared urgent, used no words to convince her of otherwise. Liara turned to her controls. "I want a status report for all missions in fifteen minutes." Her distorted voice flew through every open channel available. She turned around, motioning for Shepard to follow up the stairs. "What is it? Did something happen?"

"I've just been thinking," The Commander began, "I guess I wanted to say something sooner, but I was just waiting for the opportunity."

"I suppose you found your chance." She replied, heading towards the lounge and finding a seat within the empty row. Feron had known to find himself elsewhere in that moment.

"It's all of this." Shepard began, motioning towards their surroundings.

"Not this again." Liara said, her gaze turning from that of her love to a distant point on the wall. She breathed a heavy sigh; thick with frustration.

"Don't do that. It's not about the mission. You made it clear your place is here." Shepard spoke with her own touch of frustration about the subject. She stood before the Asari, eyebrows furrowed with her own brand of confusion. "You're sure about all this?"

"You know I am."

"You are." Shepard opened her mouth to continue, faltering over her own words for a moment. "But what about me?"

"I don't understand." Liara replied. The concept of their relationship was one previously discussed, to the conclusion that they were going to see where they were able to go. But there was a lot riding against them. Shepard turned her back to the Broker.

"You made this choice. You say that it was because you could help me, and you're right. I know that this can help me, and the mission." With this warm up, Liara's eyes flicked back to her console, her mind wandering to what information she was going to receive in the coming moments. "What really gets to me is that you didn't give us a chance to even talk about it."

This ignites something within the Asari, and she rises from her position. "Because that was my choice!" She said, her gaze locking to Shepard's as she turned to face her love once more, a steely expression in the moment which prompted Liara to find a reason for this dispute. "There are some things in life you can't dictate."

"It isn't about control, Liara." Shepard called back.

"Isn't it?" She asked; a redundant question in the thick of the moment to pull out what was really happening here. "Then what?"

"This isn't about you."

"Is it about you?" Liara asked, crossing the distance between them to meet Shepard head on. "The world according to the famous Commander Shepard is not something I choose to run my life by."

"It's about us, Liara! You think you would see that by now. This isn't just a thing that we can leave in the open to steer itself!" Shepard called to her, voice rising in the heated moment. Liara was taken back; rocking down off the balls of her feet.

"Us?" She said, as though it were a foreign concept.

"You don't just get to make your own choices anymore. Your decisions are my decisions, and mine are yours. When you make a choice to commit your life to something like this, you take that away from me. Away from what we could be doing and what we could have." Shepard paused, gauging the response from her love. Feelings of doubt, confusion and hopefulness ran amidst those blue orbs. "I want you."

"You..?"

"No." The Commander interjects suddenly. This thoroughly confused the Broker.

"What?" She asked, thinking that all she had said was suddenly devalued to its lowest point.

"Not just you; I want a life with you." Shepard corrects. "I want a life where we can settle. I want a life where there's nothing threatening us; where we can just be us. I don't care about anything else." She looked to Liara, and silence broke out within the room. Only the gentle hum of electricity and the subtle shaking of the titanic ship would fracture the stillness of that moment.

Liara begins to weigh her options. Power or love; when has the universe ever given the opportunity to harness both?

"I can't leave." Liara replied honestly. Shepard sighed heavily through her lips, her weight falling back on one foot as her arms folded before her chest. "That's the truth. I can't leave this now. I have to see this through." Shepard moved then, taking a step away as if to begin pacing the floor. "There's so much at stake here. Everything to win and lose." As she spoke, tension built within the Commanding officer while she paced. Liara reached out her hand, fingers coiling around the forearm of her love to stop her movements. "Listen to me!" Her voice elevated slightly in the echoing steel hull. Shepard stopped, eyes connecting for long enough to show Liara that this wasn't just a thing they could dance around anymore. "It's about the mission-"

"-The mission is mine to command." Shepard interrupts; damn near seething through her teeth.

"I know that. And I want to help however I can. For the moment, my place is here." She lets her love go, then, and she straightens up before the Asari. They are close; close enough to feel an almost physical gravitational pull towards one another. But for the moment, they are to behave. Shepard drops her gaze to the side, unable to take the further sting of what was surely to come. "But..." Liara began, raising a hand to the face of her beloved to force their eyes to connect. "Afterwards."

"Is there an afterwards?" Shepard asks. Liara's hand fell to the arm of her love.

"When the world settles, we will no longer belong to the galaxy's whim." Liara spoke with dignity, her voice never faltering as the harsh reality left her lips and flew to Shepard's ears. The reality of the situation was unavoidable. For the time being, there was nothing they could do. Not often was it the Asari who comforted and protected the Commander, but she gave reassurance that everything would fall into place. The only issue was when. And for that, neither had an answer. "We will belong to each other." She says, and smiles; her lips curling at the sides to brighten spirits at the thought of how close they were.

In that moment, Liara moved to close the distance between two, their forms crashing against each other, as if to meld into one complete being. Their lips brushed in a kiss, soft and sweet as always. Her arms surrounded the form of her love, pulling tighter against the fabric of Shepard's clothes. She grasped firmly onto the moment, pulling back long enough to breathe before reconnecting once more; lips parting as intentions and passions grew with passing seconds. Shepard's hands rested on gently her waist.

As it settled, the distance grew. "So for now, then," Shepard began, looking for Liara's judgement.

"You do what you're doing, and I'll do what I'm doing." She replied, her smile brilliant with anticipation.

"Right." Shepard nodded, her own vivid smile a gift to her love. They stood for a moment, staring, admiring; adoring. "I should go." The Commander reluctantly spoke, springing back into reality.

"Come back soon." Liara hopeful voice spoke as Shepard took a few steps away to leave. She refused to stop; a moment to pause in her motion would mean that she would never go.

"We have something to look forward to." Shepard spoke, a small chuckle strung to the end of her words as she went.


End file.
